Taliban bomber kills 2 troops in Pakistani Kashmir

Source: Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up near an army vehicle Friday, killing at least two soldiers in the first such assault in Pakistan's part of divided Kashmir, marking an escalation in the militant campaign against security forces.

The military said in a statement that three other soldiers were wounded in the early morning bombing in Muzaffarabad, the region's capital, and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a deputy of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, told The Associated Press that the assault was launched to prove that Mehsud had not been weakened by more than a week of strikes on his suspected hideouts in his tribal homeland in northwestern Pakistan.

"We are in a position to respond to the army's attacks, and time will prove that these military operations have not weakened us," Hakimullah Mehsud told The Associated Press by telephone.



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